Giesecke & Devrient, the Munich-based technology services provider for the financial services industry, has received a new stamp of approval on its Trusted Services Manager centers in Munich and Toronto. Card brand Visa has now certified the facilities based on testing it carried out on the data centers' security, G&D said.

With approval by Visa, G&D facilities now have authorizations from the two largest payment brands. MasterCard certificated the TSM hubs last year, G&D said. This means the company is able to support TSM services for any contactless payment applications using either Visa's payWave or MasterCard's PayPass technologies. 

"Now that Visa has approved our TSM facilities in Munich and Toronto, G&D is in an excellent position to offer contactless payment applications worldwide," said Michael Kuemmerle, group executive mobile security at Giesecke & Devrient.

TSM providers are responsible for the crucial secure link in NFC payment schemes between the wireless networks and the application providers — companies like credit card issuers or transit authority. TSMs ensure that data from those app providers is installed and updated on devices in real time.

G&D's data center in Munich has been running pilots using the Visa payWave payment application already, G&D said. With approval by Visa, G&D can offer service providers the option of having Visa applications installed, personalized, and managed on a device's SIM card or Embedded Secure Element.

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